Hiring Driven Salespeople

Dedicated to Helping You Hire Driven Salespeople

SalesDrive, LLC is a sales ability test organization that helps companies assess, interview and hire High-Drive “hunter” salespeople, while saving businesses time and money in the process. Our sales ability test leverages more than 80 years of research in the personality traits of high-performing salespeople and is now used by more than 900 companies.

We provide 2 key services to our clients:

Our flagship offering, The DriveTest®, is an online sales ability test used by companies around the world to identify candidates with the critical, non-teachable personality traits for top producers, collectively known as Drive.

Companies also rely on The Production Builder™, to intercede and begin to build a new and improved salesforce. This sales ability test helps business owners, sales managers and trainers determine their current team’s strengths, as well as specific areas for targeted improvement.

Assessment Developer and Lead Psychologist

Dr. Christopher Croner

Dr. Christopher Croner received his BA in Psychology from DePaul University, and his Masters and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Dr. Croner is co-author of the book, Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again, detailing his research and practice in identifying the non-teachable personality traits common to top producers.

Dr. Croner developed the proprietary DriveTest® online sales ability test and The Drive Interview®, both used for hiring “Hunter” salespeople. Using this method, he has helped over 900 companies worldwide to hire and develop top-performing salespeople.

Dr. Croner has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, teaching personnel selection in the Industrial Psychology Master of Arts program. Dr. Croner is an active member of the Consulting Section of the Illinois Psychological Association and former Co-Program Chair of Chicago Industrial/Organizational Psychologists (CIOP). Dr. Croner is also a partner with the DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership.

Our History

How SalesDrive, LLC Came To Be

SalesDrive was founded in 2005 based on the single biggest frustration many companies face, selecting sales candidates who interviewed well, only to flame out when placed on the line.

Depending upon the business, the monetary loss in terms of time, management and opportunities lost easily exceeded six figures per setback, sometimes much more.

Dr. Christopher Croner set out to find a solution to this problem. The right formula remained elusive until he began to focus on the personality traits that were, perhaps, common to most high-producing salespeople.

He conducted extensive research on salespeople with the mission being to track down the answer to the following question: “Are there personality characteristics common to high-performing salespeople that cannot be taught … they either have them or they don’t?”

Dr. Croner reviewed more than 80 years of academic research on this topic as well as his own work in conducting intensive behavioral interviews with both sales candidates and current highly successful producers.

Dr. Croner’s Conclusions on Sales Characteristics

There are three innate personality characteristics that high-performing salespeople share.

Need for Achievement

Competitiveness

Optimism

All three personality characteristics are essential, and none of these can be taught. This is why sales training often falls flat, since it has little impact on a trainee who does not possess this basic personality foundation.

The three traits came together to form a master characteristic called Drive. The next question was “What sales assessment or process could sales managers use to identify these traits in candidates.” Unfortunately, Dr. Croner had examined almost all the well-known assessments on the market, and while there were good, general personality tests available, none of them, focused on these three traits with the intensity and, therefore, the validity, that he could endorse.

Developing The DriveTest®

As a result of the lack of adequate assessment tools, Dr. Croner set out to develop his own sales ability test. After three years of research, development and validity testing, SalesDrive, LLC rolled out the DriveTest®.

This new online sales ability test has been widely accepted and praised by our clients as a very precise and effective means of identifying sales candidates (and in some companies, current salespeople), who possess the three characteristics necessary to train and deploy high-performing salespeople.

What SalesDrive, LLC Can Do For You

Assess sales candidates and current salespeople for the non-teachable personality traits as well as the other, teachable sales skills, like confidence, persuasiveness and relationship skills, that are necessary for sales success.

Why Clients Choose Our Sales Ability Test

Clients choose us because we are dedicated to helping companies assess, interview and hire High-Drive “hunter” salespeople and avoid hiring salespeople who cannot sustain performance, all while saving them time and money in the process.

By focusing on the three elements of Drive: Need for Achievement, Competitiveness and Optimism, we assist companies in selecting only high potential sales candidates, allowing them to spent their precious time interviewing only those candidates who have the traits needed to succeed.

What Our Clients Are Saying

We have been using the SalesDrive assessment for over 6 months and have found it to be a valuable addition to our process. The [DriveTest®] assessment gives us great insight into the Drive and sales potential of assessed candidates. When reviewed, addressed and used properly SalesDrive gives us real areas of focus to discuss with interviewees. Miranda Toops, Dr. Chris Croner and team are extremely supportive and respond to anything we need right away. They provide us great support, additional resources and tips, and have been a valuable part of our success with SalesDrive.

Michael Kelly, Director of Talent Acquisition, Express Locations

The DriveTest® is a critical element of the sales recruiting process for our franchisees, and dealers. It lets them size up a candidate quickly, and interview only those with a high potential for success.

Ron Davidson, Dealer Development, Ram Jack Systems

When it comes to sales reps, the most important success factor is their personality. SalesDrive helps us look beneath the surface to evaluate if the candidate has the necessary ‘sales DNA’.

The DriveTest® is a very useful tool for hiring salespeople. The results are easy to interpret and give hiring managers and HR interesting insights into characteristics of their potential hire.

Joanna Bloch, HR and Benefits Consultant, Compugen, Inc.

SalesDrive, LLC is a key component in the hiring process of Sales Professionals at Traffic Tech, Inc. I have used SalesDrive for many years to assist me in identifying the key personality traits of prospective candidates. SalesDrive assist you in making educated hiring decisions, while reducing the unnecessary expense of hiring the wrong candidate. I consider SalesDrive to be an invaluable resource.